Emotional Intelligence Promotes Creativity, As Per A New Study On Supervisors And Their Patients
The activity of a supervisor should be more like supervision than surveillance. It is a slight difference in nuance between the two. While surveillance makes you think about the activity of a detective investigating a murder, supervision sounds more like something a doctor would for his patient. Anyhow, emotional intelligence is required. Not only for supervisors, but for everyone, since emotional intelligence promotes creativity, and that’s an advantage for every human being.
None of the two aspects should have anything to do when one thinks about the relationship between an employee and a supervisor. But no matter the rules and boundaries we invent trying to define and create a micro-society such as an environment one has to work in, life cannot be left at the door, and people will never act like robots.
They have feelings, thoughts, emotions that can either help or damage that environment. And a supervisor can act as the detective that punishes his employees for being humans, or he can be the doctor that tries to find out what is the source of the feelings standing in the way of performance and learn to direct those feelings towards the duty task.
So, dear supervisor, you should learn more about feelings and how they work, and know as much about them as you do about the designated tasks at your job because this is what makes the difference between success and failure when you are in charge of people. A commander is first responsible for those being in his command because they are the only ones who can get his job done. This is what Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and the Faas Foundation succeeded in proving with their new study.
A new study concluded that emotional intelligence boosts creativity
To achieve the creativity, any job requires, emotional intelligence is needed. And don’t fool yourself: any job needs creativity. Not just artistic ones. When you are in charge of other people fulfilling the tasks, you need your emotional intelligence to be by your side. So, the supervisor should start with being intelligent about his own feelings. That way, he can become the supervisor he dreamed of being: inspiring, supportive, always making the right decision (even when it’s a bad one!) skilled at reading and guiding people under his watch. If you need to lead, then you are not a leader. People should follow you, not be supported by you.
A supervisor is not happy and tolerant for no reason. He must still see the flaws and work to correct them. But with emotional intelligence skills. He needs to give genuine, informative feedback because he still has a goal, and he is responsible for it. For that to happen, feelings need to be acknowledged. They can’t be hidden, just dissimulated for a while, and they are always smarter than any other kind of intelligence. Feelings will find their way to disturb. But, if they are acknowledged and smartly directed, they might become real assets because they can stimulate creativity. Feelings can generate different strong emotions. And emotions are the fuel of creativity.
This is what the study proved. It was carried out in three phases on sample of close to 15,000 employees across the U.S. They answered three sets of questions, with different line of research: about their supervisors’ behavior, their emotional experiences of work, and to what extent they have opportunities to grow and make progress at work and how often they are creative at work.
The results all say the same: people working with supervisors with high emotional intelligence stated to be happy, proud, fulfilled, and successful employees, while the other more significant segment talked about frustration, tiredness, decrease in work efficiency, and the need to escape work. The difference between the two groups was one: the supervisor’s abilities to supervise. Maybe we should change the name of the supervisor and use a synonymous that reminds the supervisor that he is more than an authority. He should be an overseer.
As our second lead editor, Anna C. Mackinno provides guidance on the stories Great Lakes Ledger reporters cover. She has been instrumental in making sure the content on the site is clear and accurate for our readers. If you see a particularly clever title, you can likely thank Anna. Anna received a BA and and MA from Fordham University.
0 comments